Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman, a Democrat, has taken a narrow lead for second place over former reality TV star Spencer Pratt, a registered Republican, in the race to take on Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in a runoff this fall.
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NBC News projected Bass’ advancing to the runoff last week, but the outstanding question, as the city and the state continue counting ballots, is whom she will face and what kind of matchup that will be. NBC News hasn’t projected the winner of the other spot in the runoff.
The picture as it looked on election night has changed in recent days.
Pratt, who has challenged Bass from the right in the nonpartisan mayoral race, has seen his hold on the second-place slot evaporate as Raman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, caught up.
In an emotional speech to supporters on election night, Raman said were still many ballots to count, “and we may not get an answer we like. But regardless of what happens next, nobody, nobody can take away what all of us have built together.”
But Raman has closed the gap significantly with each successive update from Los Angeles election authorities since Wednesday. By Friday night, she had cut Pratt’s advantage almost in half, to just over 20,000 votes. And on Sunday night, she overtook Pratt by a few thousand votes in the latest update.
It’s part of a pattern all over California since primary night: Democrats have gained more votes as the state’s slow counting process continues, after a late surge in Democratic turnout.
Other examples of the pattern include the open governor’s race — in which former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra is in first place and, NBC News projected Friday, has secured a spot in the general election — as well as key congressional campaigns, like the 6th District race in the Sacramento area, a seat Democrats redrew to flip it this fall.
There, the leading Democrat has pulled into second place in a scrambled race that includes Republican-turned-independent Rep. Kevin Kiley and an additional Republican challenger. The results have soothed Democratic fears of getting locked out of the top-two general election despite the district’s blue lean.
In Los Angeles, Raman’s gains have put two very different types of mayoral races in play for the fall.
A Bass-Pratt race might look like a more traditional partisan contest, as Pratt tries to turn the election into more of an insider-versus-outsider dynamic.
A Bass-Raman race would pit two Democrats against each other, with Raman, a former Bass ally, challenging her from the left during the campaign.
The general election picture was more muddled in a preprimary Los Angeles Times poll. The survey found both Bass and Raman leading in one-on-one matchups with Pratt — and Raman with a small advantage inside the margin of error in a general election matchup with Bass. Fully 40% of those polled said that they weren’t sure whom they would vote for or that they wouldn’t vote in such a matchup.
In a statement, Bass’ campaign attacked Raman. “We look forward to winning a contest against an opponent who allows encampments near schools and fights against hiring more cops, yet is MIA on saving Hollywood jobs and fighting back when ICE invades LA,” Bass campaign spokesperson Alex Stack said.
Raman said in a statement Sunday night that she is “encouraged by the latest vote count and remain grateful to the thousands of Angelenos who have powered this campaign.”
In the meantime, Los Angeles still has more than 100,000 votes left to count.
